Abstract: In an effort to get the Qing court to lift the ban on trade at Macao the Portuguese sent a mission to
present a lion as imperial tribute． At that time the Chinese literati and officials warmly praised the
Portugal present of a lion and raised the political significance of the gift of the lion． But as time went on，
the incident gradually blurred，the Qing Wen literati began，following traditional cultural imagination，to
reconstruct the incident． In later Qing literary accounts，the historical fact of the gift of the lion
unexpectedly turned into a legend． After layers of anecdotes that distorted the truth，and the truth of the
matter was eventually lost in the mists of history．